As last, the promised summary of received answers to my question of
September 24. As a reminder, the original question was:
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<snip>
I downloaded Netscape 7 recently. Today, as I was going in to delete the preset bookmarks, I saw that one of them is "useit.com Jakob Nielsen's site (Usable Information Technology)", listed under "Misc. useful resources."
It is, sadly, the only usability/HCI-related bookmark among the bunch. But compared to the normal number in such setups (i.e., zero), I was delighted to see it in there!
I'm also not convinced useit.com is the best choice. So to make this discussion a bit more educational (for me and any Netscape designers who may be reading), I wondered: If you were to list just one HCI/usability site on such a list, which would you list?
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Three sites tied for first place, with two votes each:
http://www.AskTog.comhttp://usability.govhttp://usableweb.com
Five sites tied for second place, with one vote each:
http://alistapart.comhttp://www.boxesandarrows.comhttp://www.usablenews.com/UNPWelcome.htmhttp://www.usabilityfirst.comhttp://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usability_news.html
As third place would have to be sites with zero votes, those are not included.
<insert laugh track here>
Detailed comments from the voters follow. Thanks to all for your contributions!
Regards,
Melissa Butler
Once-and-Future User Experience Analyst
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From: Manu Sharma <[log in to unmask]>
It would be AskTog.com.
My choice may be biased because I haven't read extensively but I believe there's a lot of credit we owe to Tog. The basics of Tog's "Practical real-world design" hold gems of principles that aren't visible at first glance but if you persevere and relate them to your work, they’ll shine
through :)
Two reasons why his principles will last beyond himself and what makes them a classic:
* In their scope: They are platform independent. They will work equally well when applied to a website, a mobile phone and perhaps even beyond that.
* In their application: They provide holistic design direction, not specific absolutes. They do not lay down guidelines of what/where/how of a particular design element. Like, "navigation should always be on the left." Instead they lay out what a design should _achieve_. For example [my favouraite one]... the web would be a much simpler place if we agreed to just one advice, "Limit Decision-making."
Here’s where you’ll find Tog’s gems:
http://www.asktog.com/basics/03Performance.htmlhttp://asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html
Bruce Tognazzini is the apple of our eyes.
Manu
New Delhi, India
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From: Blake Carver <[log in to unmask]>
I'd go with alistapart.com
-----------------------------
Blake Carver
LISNews.com
Librarian and Information Science News
http://www.lisnews.com
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From: Antin, Jonathan F (Jon), HRSVC <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.asktog.com/
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From: Orr, Julian <[log in to unmask]>
www.Boxesandarrows.com
Cheers,
jlz
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From: Ron Zeno <[log in to unmask]>
Obviously, http://usability.gov - They don't have the conflict of
interest of consultant-produced sites. They have extremely high-quality
information. They even document criteria for their choice of articles
and information.
Nothing else even comes close.
- Ron Zeno
http://ronz.blogspot.com
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From: Sarit Arora <[log in to unmask]>
I would certainly suggest the link www.usability.gov. It's the most comprehensive and even a person with little or no knowledge about usability will get wholistic information about usability.
best,
Sarit Arora
Sr. Human factors Speacialist
Human Factors international
www.humanfactors.com
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From: Gilbert Cockton <[log in to unmask]>
www.usabilitynews.com/ - but I'm biased
It is the best topical site tho
Gilbert
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof. Gilbert Cockton FBCS FRSA,
Research Chair in Human-Computer Interaction, School of Computing & Technology
University of Sunderland, PO Box 299, Sunderland, SR6 0YN
Courier: David Goldman Informatics Centre, St. Peter's Way, Sunderland, SR6 0DD
Tel/Fax: +44 191 515 3394/2781 Web: www.cet.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0gco
British HCI Group Chair - www.bcs-hci.org.uk - sponsor of www.usabilitynews.com
CHI 2003 General Co-Chair - 5-10 April 2003 in Fort Lauderdale: www.chi2003.org
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From: Malecek, Patrick <[log in to unmask]>
I would use http://usableweb.com/: "1317 links about web usability."
Jakob and the other gurus are listed there along with, well, 1300 or so
other useful resources.
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From: "Challis Hodge" <[log in to unmask]>
Little to no personal/group pr and fairly objective:
Usable Web
http://www.usableweb.com/
Usability News
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usability_news.html
Usability First
http://www.usabilityfirst.com
-challis
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Challis Hodge
[log in to unmask]
847-830-8638
fax 253-295-4700
www.challishodge.com
customer-centered design, technology & business
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